Novig and Crypto.com have filed separate federal lawsuits against Missouri after the state moved to stop their sports event contracts or require gambling licences, according to Gambling Insider.
The immediate fight is over who gets to regulate those products. Gambling Insider reported that Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway sent cease-and-desist notices in September ordering prediction market operators to stop offering sports event contracts in the state or obtain the necessary gambling licences. Novig then filed in the Eastern District of Missouri, while Crypto.com brought its case in the Western District.
Both companies argue that their event contracts are federally regulated and fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, with federal commodities law preempting Missouri’s gambling restrictions, Gambling Insider reported.
That is the companies’ position, not a ruling. On the facts available here, no court has yet decided that Missouri is barred from enforcing its laws, and no court has resolved whether these sports event contracts can continue to be offered in the state on the terms the companies want.
What the lawsuits do make plain is the fault line. Traditional sportsbooks operate through state licensing systems; the prediction-market companies are arguing that their products belong under a federal commodities framework instead. Missouri is pressing the opposite point through enforcement.
Gambling Insider noted that the Eighth Circuit has not yet ruled on the issue. So for now, Missouri becomes another courtroom where that jurisdictional argument is being tested, with one case on each side of the state.
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